Cape Town - Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has included Springboks Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh on his bench after the Bok management finally released the duo.

Province take on the Golden Lions in a Currie Cup clash at Newlands on Friday night.

Coetzee was left in the dark until late on Tuesday afternoon as to whether Aplon and De Jongh would be allowed to play against the Lions.

This late confirmation has given the WP coach no other option than to play his two backline stars from the bench on Friday night.

"They haven't practiced with us yet, so there's no way we could just pick them in the starting team. But they will definitely get game time," Coetzee told the Die Burger newspaper.

The WP brains trust can rightly feel aggrieved that it took the Bok management so long to finally release the two players, especially De Jongh.

The centre was not part of the Bok 22-man squad for the Test against Australia in Durban last week.

It would thus have made sense to release De Jongh - as was the case with several other Boks at other provinces - for last week's Currie Cup  to gain some much needed playing time, as the Boks will only play again on 11 September in the World Cup.

Pieter Louw is the only change to the starting line-up from the team that went down to the Sharks last week. He replaces Ruan Kitshoff - who has been included in Namibia's squad for the World Cup.

Ikey captain Nick Fenton-Wells comes in on the bench as loose forward cover.

Quinn Roux is also on the bench to provide cover at lock for the injured Adriaan Fondse.

De Jongh and Aplon replace Berton Klaasen and Marcel Brache - who drop out of the 22-man squad.

Teams:

Western Province: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Tim Whitehead, 11 JJ Engelbrecht, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Pieter Louw, 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Hilton Lobberts, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie (captain), 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Substitutes: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 Quinn Roux, 19 Nick Fenton-Wells, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Gio Aplon.


Golden Lions: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Deon van Rensburg, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Alwyn Hollenbach, 11 Michael Killian, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Michael Bondesio, 8 Joshua Strauss (captain), 7 Derick Minnie, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Wikus van Heerden, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg.

Substitutes: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Jacobie Adriaanse, 18 Michael Rhodes, 19 Warren Whiteley, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Jannie Boshoff.